ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

ON THIS DAY IN 1876, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle said, “The Centennial Appropriation bill passed the House yesterday by a close vote. Messrs. Bliss and Chittenden, and Schumaker, voted for it. There were two statutory conditions attached to the bill: The recipients of the money are required to give bonds in $500,000 that it be spent rightly, or purely for the Exposition purposes, and the Government is made a preferred creditor, in the event of anything being left over. The bill will undoubtedly pass the Senate and be signed by the President. The struggle in the House has been protracted, and the speeches on each side have been an index to the ability of the members. The index is very clear, but it does not point to so much ability as may be considered desirable in a House representative of the intellectual progress of the Republic during its first century. Too much stress has been laid on the matter and on the result, both in the House and in the press. There is no doubt that the money will be very helpful to the celebration, and there is no doubt that had the money been refused, the projectors of the celebration would have got it somewhere else, and the ‘show’ would have gone on all the same. The passage of the bill is only another way of getting at the money of the people after all, and the money would have been paid by the people, the bill failing, through a greater variety of sources, and with more delay in time.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1913, Eagle columnist Frederick Boyd Stevenson said, “To create a fund of $100,000,000 for the Rockefeller Foundation, the object of which is to promote the well being and to advance the civilization of the people of the United States in the acquisition and dissemination of knowledge, in the prevention and relief of suffering and in promotion of eleemosynary and philanthropic means of any and all of the elements of human progress, the National House of Representatives last week passed the Peters bill, and the indications are that the measure, which is now before the Senate, will be passed by that body and become a law before the adjournment of the present Congress. This stupendous charitable enterprise providing for the relief of mankind and the advance of human knowledge and betterment far into the future — an enterprise, the magnitude of which and the scope of which has no parallel in history — cannot be grasped or understood by a mere announcement of the figures representing the vast sum to be placed at the disposition of the incorporators and their advisers.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1948, the Eagle reported, “The weather was clear and snappy today and the Department of Sanitation was well on the way toward making the track as fast as possible in the wake of the blizzard which flirted with the city during the weekend. Brooklynites faced, however, the prospect of a new cold wave, according to the United Press; the fifth in 12 days. This one slipped into the northern plain states from Canada and the midwest was expected to be in its grip by tonight. The local weather bureau had no comment since it gives no forecasts more than two days ahead of time.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1955, the Eagle reported, “Joe DiMaggio, as usual, was the No. 1 candidate for election to baseball’s Hall of Fame today, but, as usual, there was no guarantee he’d get in. He didn’t miss being elected by much in the voting by members of the Baseball Writers Association last January so it was almost a foregone conclusion he would be formally installed in the shrine at Cooperstown, N.Y., after the ballots were counted today. Upwards of 250 ballots have been cast and a player’s name must appear on three-quarters of them to be elected. Each writer is permitted to vote for 10 players who have been active within the last 25 years. DiMaggio, who closed his brilliant career with the Yankees after the 1951 season, missed being elected by only 14 votes last year, polling 175 out of a possible 252 votes.”

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Vince Carter.
Photo: Morry Gash/AP

NOTABLE PEOPLE BORN ON THIS DAY include comic book artist Sal Buscema, who was born in Brooklyn in 1936; “Eight Men Out” star David Strathairn, who was born in 1949; singer-songwriter Lucinda Williams, who was born in 1953; “Sweet Love” singer Anita Baker, who was born in 1958; talk show host Ellen DeGeneres, who was born in 1958; Hockey Hall of Famer Wayne Gretzky, who was born in 1961; Cinderella singer Tom Keifer, who was born in 1961; “61*” star Jennifer Crystal Foley, who was born in 1973; Basketball Hall of Famer Vince Carter, who was born in 1977; former NJ/Brooklyn Nets shooting guard MarShon Brooks, who was born in 1989; and figure skater Emily Hughes, who was born in 1989.

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WORDS ABOUT BIRDS: On this day in 1784, Founding Father Benjamin Franklin wrote a letter to his daughter expressing his unhappiness over the choice of the eagle as the symbol of America. Franklin preferred the turkey.

Wayne Gretzky.
Photo: Greg Allen/Invision/AP

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STAR POWER: Paul Newman was born on this day in 1925. The Ohio native with the piercing blue eyes was one of Hollywood’s brightest stars. His legacy includes “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof,” “The Hustler,” “Hud,” “Cool Hand Luke,” “The Sting,” “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid” and “Slap Shot.” He won the Academy Award for Best Actor for his performance in “The Color of Money.” He died in 2008.

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Anita Baker.
Photo: Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP

PHANTASTIC: “The Phantom of the Opera” opened on Broadway on this day in 1988. The award-winning musical, based on the Gaston Leroux novel about a tortured soul haunting the Paris Opera House, premiered in London on Oct. 9, 1986. Its music and lyrics are by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Charles Hart, with the book by Lloyd Webber and Richard Stilgoe. In January 2006 it became the longest-running show in Broadway history.

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Special thanks to “Chase’s Calendar of Events” and Brooklyn Public Library.

Quotable

“If you’re playing a poker game and you look around the table and can’t tell who the sucker is, it’s you.” — Oscar-winning actor Paul Newman, who was born on this day in 1925